LEHIGH VALLEY MUSIC: Rush at Allentown Fair is one for the ages … well, almost

September 01, 2010

It was fitting that the Rush concert that played at Allentown Fair's grandstand Tuesday was the Time Machine Tour, because the show was one for the ages.

Well, almost.

With 10,011 people in attendance, it was almost a sell-out – just a few hundred short. And with the fair's highest-priced tickets ever, it almost broke the box office gate record, with un-audited figures showing it "very close to" the $700,000 the Jonas Brothers brought in at the 2008 fair, Marketing Director Bonnie Brosious said.

But there were other ways in which Rush's show almost achieved greatness. In nearly 2 1/2 hours of music (plus a 25-mminute intermission) the Canadian trio played 25 songs. Only one ("Limelight") was under five minutes long. "Camera Eye" stretched 10 minutes.

And these years later, the band's maligned prog rock songs have held up extremely well. The music often created wonderful sonic scenery – full, dense, moody. "Freewill" was amazingly well-played – tight and precise. "Closer to the Heart" was a joy, with guitarist Alex Lifeson playing a long intro on a 12-string acoustic. For the instrumental "YYZ," the crowd cheered along the entire way, and it was well deserved.

Well, almost all the songs held up.

"Stick it Out" from 1993's "Counterparts" was plodding, and couldn't be saved even by Lifeson's winding solo and singer Geddy Lee's plucked bass. "Working Them Angels" also was ponderous and pretentious, with video slides of solders, laborers and children with wings shown on a huge video screen, but was saved by Lifeson's switching to lute in the middle of the song.

Two new songs from the band's upcoming album "Clockwork Angels" – "BU2B" and "Caravan" – were driving, but derivative from the band's other material.

In fact, the virtuoso individual playing of Rush's members often was better than the songs as a whole.

Lifeson literally sweated through two shirts as he played sometimes spacey, sonic and soaring, often intricate and blindingly fast (his hands sometimes strummed over the strings so fast, it was as if he was scratching them).

Lee also is a great bassist. On the largely instrumental "Leave That Thing Alone,' he plucked his guitar as if spanking it. And his keyboards on "Marathon" sounded as if they were being played in a cathedral, and added rich atmosphere to "Subdivisions."

And Neil Peart is the consummate drummer – busy, fast precise, but not once flashy. During an eight-minute drum solo – something usually merely tolerated by an audience – the crowd enthusiastically cheered him along, especially when his kit rotated mid-song and he shifted his seat to play it, then back again.

So virtuoso was the playing of Rush's members that for more of the show, the crowd was staid, as if listening to a symphony. It erupted occasionally – and hardily -- to reward a particularly good solo or to cheer a favorite song.

Well, almost all the instruments were great.

At 57, Lee's impossibly high voice apparently is impossible. From the opening "The Spirit of Radio," it showed cracks. It was better in a lower range, but occasionally yelpy when he reached for the high notes. But it was to his credit that he often did reach – and hit some on "Red Barchetta" and "Limelight," but also came up short on that song and "Closer to the Heart."

The much-promoted sequential playing of the album "Moving Pictures" wasn't a significant factor in the show. With "Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight," the seven-song disc has some of Rush's best tunes, anyway, and the others fit the flow of the show.

But Rush chose to use it for the few times in the concert when they diverged from strict note-by-note recreations of their songs – which enhanced the show. On "Tom Sawyer," Lifeson stretched his playing, and they mixed the ending to the crowd's roar. On "Red Barchetta," Lifeson and Lee finally played off each other, facing off at center stage, with Lifeson kicking and hopping. "Limelight" was more muscular than on the record.

Later, the band tweaked the middle of "Closer to the Heart" to make it a slow rocker.

Well, almost all the change-ups worked.

The closing "Working Man,' one of the band's more powerful and straightforward statements, was reworked with a reggae bent. Interesting, and the crowd cheered it, but it seemed to sap some of its strength.

So maybe Rush didn't have a time machine and couldn't take everyone back. But for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday, they at least seemed to make time stand still.